Random Vintage Collection Thoughts For Thursday 4/21

Here's some more Vintage Collection thoughts for today.

• The Emperor's Royal Guard Fan Channel wave is currently hitting brick and mortar in the United States. That is the fourth wave of budget year 2021. The third wave was the Boba Fett wave, which was originally slated for May. It's not even May yet and the following wave has shipped. We're a full wave ahead of schedule. It's well known that the first wave of a budget year can slip into the previous calendar year. At this rate could TWO 2022 waves slip into 2021? Considering that, between Gaming Greats and the Walmart Lucasfilm 50th line, even more figures have been added to this year, this is astounding. Consumers are chewing through the product faster than Hasbro can make it available for sale.


• It feels like the Special Action Figure sets are dead. The announcement that the General Antoc Merrick pack-in figure will be carded seems to indicate that Hasbro is considering that "the package is the product" with respect to the Vintage Collection, meaning that any figure released under the banner will be carded. That would spell the end of the Special Action Figure sets outside of the convention exclusives. This makes me a little sad. I've grown to like and appreciate them.


• I prophesied that the Anakin Peasant Fan Channel wave hitting brick and mortar would be apocalyptic for the line. Shows you what I know. I would even say it didn't amount to a speed bump. All of my stores got one to two cases of it, and they all sold through in days. Not weeks or months. Days. I will take a plate of crow fricassee with a side of humble pie. But it did occur to me that three of the four figures were from the Prequel Trilogy, which is a source that has been virtually shut out of the line since 2014 (the Elite Corps Clone Trooper notwithstanding). That might have something to do with the wave selling. It's time for TVC 2.0 to get its first newly tooled Prequel Trilogy figure, and my vote is fo Ki-Adi-Mundi. He's too important of a Jedi to be stuck with swivel elbows.

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